


Just Count On Me

by singing_to_empty_caves



Series: That's What Bein' A Friend Is About [7]
Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings
Genre: It's official, They're okay though, although she'd probably win, and ana can fight lloyd if she wants to change ninten, bc ninten is wholesome and pure, i adore her powers, lloyd defends ninten to ana, lloyd is still kind of a wreck, ninten is a mini himbo, still in the closet, stronk lil girl, we're just good friends in this one, you could impress this boy with one of those color changing sparklers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:21:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singing_to_empty_caves/pseuds/singing_to_empty_caves
Summary: Ana has incredibly powerful PSI, Ninten has an incredible lack of self-control, and Lloyd has incredibly intense feelings. They may be an unlikely group, but these three oddball kids are teaming up for a reason--or maybe just because Ninten was headstrong enough to assimilate Lloyd and Ana whether they liked it or not.
Relationships: Ana & Lloyd & Ninten (Mother 1), Ana/Ninten (Mother 1), lloyd/ninten (one-sided)
Series: That's What Bein' A Friend Is About [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1524248
Comments: 16
Kudos: 15





	Just Count On Me

Hat firmly set on her head, Ana led Lloyd and Ninten out of the drugstore.

There was no way she’d ever be able to overtake Ninten’s take-charge personality, but she did have a way with words. After Ninten and Lloyd had spent a short while recovering from the cold, she’d revealed that she was completely on board with their quest. Although Ninten hadn’t given her many details as to what they were actually doing wandering around the world the way they were, Ana told them a dream that came to her in the earliest hours of the morning. She’d seen a young boy wearing a shining badge of courage, and when Ninten walked into the chapel, he fit right into her memories of the dream.

So, she’d gone back home to pack some things for their adventure, and Ninten had paid for a room for the two of them to stay in at the tiny hotel in Snowman. Lloyd had passed out almost immediately, exhausted by the day’s events, and before he knew it, they had to rush out the door for their rendezvous with Ana the next morning.

Although it was slightly unsettling to trail behind two psychics, Lloyd figured that there was only so much he could do with various homemade explosives and a boomerang--if they could find another one anytime soon. It was awfully selfish of him to sell the one Ninten had given him… he still felt very guilty about it, even after Ninten forgave him. It wasn’t a good thing to do to a friend, and why had he done it? Because he was--because he’d let his feelings get to him?

“Easter is pretty far north from here… I hope the journey won’t be too long,” Ana sighed.

“Yeah,” Ninten said. “Your mom’s up there, right?”

“She should be, if all goes well--but it never seems to these days. After all, with everyone vanishing the way they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if that town is completely empty when we get there...”

“Hey, Ana?”

She glanced over at Lloyd.

“You two… didn’t have too much trouble getting here, right? From the church?”

“Nah,” Ninten waved him off. “We were fine. Actually, seemed like a lot more of the Weird-ified were gone.”

Good, so Lloyd hadn’t left his friend and a girl in great danger. The guilt eased, just slightly.

“Did _you_ make it back all right?” Ninten asked.

“That’s right, I didn’t even think to ask…” Ana realized. “With everything Ninten said about Weird-ified monsters on the prowl, I expected more problems. Did you tame some of those monsters on your way back? Was it hard on you?”

“No, no, I’m all right. I suppose I threw that boomerang a lot harder when I was upset.”

“You’re stronger than ya think, Lloyd. Especially when you’re tryin’ to protect me,” Ninten pointed out.

Ana hummed thoughtfully. “Really? I guess there’s more behind the glasses than I thought.”

With two sources of flattery that he didn’t deserve, Lloyd found himself less honored and more so very, very flustered. He ducked his head, feeling his face heat up.

“I-I’m really… not as great as Ninten makes me out to be,” Lloyd mumbled.

“Well, sure ya are!” Ninten insisted. “Would ya still be here otherwise? Bein’ on this adventure is insane!”

“He’s right, Ana. Are you ready for this whole thing?” Lloyd asked, trying to deflect the conversation to her.

She smiled at him. “Well, as small as I am, I promise I can look after myself. It helps to have Ninten to cover me, but… I can hold my own.”

That was cryptic, and it threw Lloyd off. Still… anyone capable of speaking telepathically into his head and predicting the future in a dream was pretty powerful, he had to admit.

“It was r-real nice of that clerk to let us k-keep the coats,” Ninten said, starting to shiver again. He shoved his hands inside the pockets of the red coat as if he’d just remembered they existed.

“Yeah, but we’re going to return them once we b-buy our own,” Lloyd reminded him.

“Well, sure! We…”

Ninten stopped his determined march through the snow. He held out an arm to bar Lloyd and Ana from walking any further.

“Eyes in the trees… It’s somethin’ big,” Ninten said.

Then, to Lloyd’s horror, a grizzly bear emerged from the shadows and snow. He was already terrified of bears--seeing one with the Weird-ified eyes froze him in place.

It took a step closer, growling with a sinister Weird-ified grin. What was it they said about grizzlies? Should he run or play dead? Was it going to eat him?! Or would it just kill him and leave him there? Either way, it was huge and definitely about to swipe its claws at him.

“PSI Shield!” Ninten shouted, just in the nick of time. He winced as the bear’s claws slashed at the glowing shield, leaving cracks down it. Lloyd noted that the shield was a little bit wider than the last time, and definitely stronger than it was during the lab explosion to withstand a grizzly bear’s claws. Ninten was getting stronger by the day.

Ninten took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his bat. “Sorry, Ana, this one probably won’t be as easy as the wolves. Lloyd’s still waitin’ on another boomerang, so if I need backup, can you help me out?”

Ana nodded once.

“Good. Then let’s get going.”

Ninten ducked around the shield and wound up to swing his bat--then his eyes widened, and he barely managed to duck out of the way of the bear’s next angry swipe. Now at the creature’s side, he took a swing at one of its knees to try and knock it off-balance--but all he accomplished was the brilliant flashing lights of a damaged Weird-ified, and he had to scramble backwards in order to avoid another attack.

Lloyd had a moment of overwhelming clarity. A step back from this situation told him just how strange the three of them probably seemed. He and Ana were crouched behind Ninten’s shield, an otherworldly force protecting them. Ninten, a twelve-year-old boy, was stupid enough to charge a grizzly bear with a baseball bat. They were wandering in the cold, a team of three kids with next-to-no knowledge of the world, operating on hearsay from strangers in order to figure out where to go next. It was a wonder the three of them weren’t dead yet--or, at least, Lloyd and Ninten.

Then Ninten shouted in surprise and panic, falling backwards onto the snow. The coat he’d expressed so much gratitude for was slashed across the front, frizzy stuffing puffing out. His eyes shut in a tight squint, and Lloyd recognized the way his mouth pressed into a tight line. He was in pain, trying not to cry.

Lloyd gasped when Ana ran outside the cover of the shield and faced the bear head-on. She held out both of her hands in front of her.

“PSI Freeze!”

Two jets of glowing blue energy shot out and trapped the bear’s paws against its body in large chunks of ice. It struggled to free itself with loud, angry complaints, but the restraints were thick enough to hold it back.

Ana pulled Ninten up off of the ground as he stared on in shock--understandably, because Ninten’s powers didn’t include _ice magic._ She must’ve been insanely powerful!

The bear broke free and roared in anger.

“PSI Fire!”

Ana brought her hands together and then, with a flourish, she swept the area in front of them with a quick wave of flame. The snow around the Weird-ified bear melted, and it started to panic and roll around to put out the flames on its fur.

Exhausted, Ana dropped her hands and staggered to a crouch. “Ninten, go!”

“Right!”

He ran forwards and wound up for a powerful swing, and then SMAAAASH! The flashing colors went wild, then cut out. 

Lloyd had never seen a bear look dizzy before, but this one stumbled a little as it stood from the ground. Its eyes and mouth were back to normal, and it shook its head a little bit before it stumbled away into the trees.

“Goodness,” Ana sighed, breathing heavily. “An actual _bear attack._ I would never have guessed…”

“ _What?!_ ” Ninten yelled, running back to her. “You have c-crazy ice and fire powers?!”

“Don’t you have PSI powers, too?” Ana asked.

“Yeah, but I can’t read m-minds or _set things on fire!_ Where’d-d you learn all that st-tuff?!”

Ana looked a little overwhelmed as she tried to catch her breath. “Likely the same way you learned yours, Ninten… all of this woke up in me over time…”

“Well… that’s still _insanely c-cool._ How’s it feel when ya s-set things on fire?”

“Well, I mean--”

“D’ya get frostbite f-from the ice?”

“I just--”

“Wait, what happens if ya do ‘em both at the same time? Does it just shoot out water, like--” Ninten held out both hands and made a spraying sound. “Wonder how hot would it get? I wouldn’t wanna be in the way of a boiling water attack!”

“I suppose I haven’t tried--”

“What would you say to make that happen? PSI Ice and then Fire? Or Fire, then Ice? Wouldja need to warm up your skin first? Does PSI Fire still catch if your hands are cold?”

“ _Ninten,_ ” Lloyd broke in pointedly.

Ninten blinked, seeming to snap out of his enthusiastic attack of questions and really notice Ana’s situation for the first time. “Oh. G-gee, I really went crazy with the q-questions, huh?”

“It’s all right,” Ana said. “You did say you were from a small town, didn’t you? There are a lot of things I can do that are unsettling even to people here in Snowman, and they’ve known me all my life...”

“Well--oh!” Ninten cut himself off to catch Ana before she fell backwards into the snow.

“Sorry… PSI takes a lot out of me.”

“I get the feeling. Think you can make it to the train station? There are plenty of benches there where you can sit down and refresh some.”

Ana nodded and started to lift herself up. Ninten offered a hand, but when she took it, he nearly yanked her off the ground.

“Goodness!” she gasped, stumbling a little.

“Sorry! Here, go ahead n’ lean on me for a while. We’re almost there…”

Ninten started to walk Ana along the path to the train station again. Lloyd watched her golden pigtails swish against the plasticy fabric of Ninten’s borrowed coat and the fuzz popping out of it, and he thought that it looked like a scene from one of those Christmas movies his mom liked watching on the days she couldn’t get out of bed very well. Aside from the fact that the boy and girl who always fell in love usually didn’t get attacked by a bear… or have telepathy.

Ninten had acted so shocked by Ana’s PSI, but Lloyd remembered him explicitly saying he had a power called ‘PSI Telepathy’. He’d explained something about “categories of power” that his great-grandfather wrote about, and how some PSI powers had weaker and stronger forms, and Ana’s PSI Telepathy did a lot more than Ninten’s. It didn’t quite make sense… but then again, he wouldn’t understand something he had no part of, would he?

* * *

“I don’t live in the middle of nowhere on some farm with cows for friends!” Ninten complained in response to a comment from Ana. “I watch TV, and Mother’s Day’s got a movie theater, and my mom even got me a Nintendo for my twelfth birthday!”

“I stand corrected,” Ana said. Lloyd noticed a sigh.

“Isn’t that strange, owning a Nintendo?” Lloyd asked.

“Whaddya mean?”

“Well, I’d feel a little bit awkward about owning a ‘Lloyd-do’. Wouldn’t you rather have a Sega or… um… what’s it called? An Auto-ri?”

“Lloyd! Ataris are so _old!_ ” Ninten exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, I don’t play very many video games…”

“Well, I’ll tell ya one thing: Sega doesn’t make good games,” Ninten declared. “I mean, c’mon! Super Mario? The Legend of Zelda? Sega’s not even close! I mean, unless they make a new, real unique game that plays different from anything else so far--and _soon_ \--it’s gonna be Nintendo forever!”

“I didn’t know you couldn’t play the same games on all of them.”

Ninten let out a loud, pained groan. “What kinda nerd are you, anyways?!”

Up until now, everyone who had called Lloyd a nerd had meant it cruelly. Normally, the word would make something curl up in Lloyd’s stomach, but the way Ninten said it… it was too friendly to hurt. Like Ninten was recognizing him for who he was, but instead of the evil smirk, Ninten said it with that _look_ in his eyes. Admiration, or appreciation, or something… suddenly, Lloyd did feel something stir up, but it was less shame and more like that stupid feeling Ninten kept giving him. How did an insult feel that nice?

Lloyd pushed that thought out of his head. He didn’t need to focus on anything Ninten did that felt nice. Ninten didn’t know what was happening to Lloyd, and Lloyd knew that thinking those kinds of thoughts was unfair. 

“I do science, not games,” Lloyd answered simply.

“Right! Lloyd the scientist!”

Ninten hopped out of his seat and spread his arms in a dramatic gesture to the whole group, like some sort of tour guide for the building.

“Ain’t this a crazy little team we’ve got? A small-town asthmatic kid, a real life science genius, and a super-powered witch!”

Lloyd noticed that Ana flinched a little at Ninten’s label. Come to think of it, she’d sort of been on edge about a lot of what Ninten was doing that day.

“Ana, is something wrong?” Lloyd asked.

“Oh, it’s not anything… important, really,” she sighed, bringing a smile back onto her face.

“Good!” Ninten said. He was still a little bit too loud for the building they were in, Lloyd noted. Could that be the issue?

“Could you lower your volume?” Lloyd asked, glancing around at all of the stares they’d attracted.

“Oh! Right… sorry,” Ninten agreed with a sheepish grin. “Hey, I gotta go buy our tickets, so I’ll be right back. Everyone’s talkin’ about Easter, but I heard Halloween’s _haunted._ I’d hate to take such a long train ride if there’s a melody there we have to come back for in order to save the people in Easter.”

“A melody?” Ana asked.

“Yeah! One of the parts to Queen Mary’s song. I know three, but there are eight all together. Didn’t I tell you about all this?”

A very bewildered-looking Ana shook her head.

“Huh. Well, after I took great-grandpa George’s journal to learn about PSI, I ended up using it to open up some kinda doorway to another dimension. Queen Mary rules Magicant, and I kinda figure someone that powerful’s gotta have a way to help me fix the world, right? Anyways, all I gotta do is come back to her in Magicant with all eight parts of this special song, and then she’ll be able to help us.”

“...Hm.”

“All right, the next train to Halloween’s gonna leave soon, so I’d better get in line!”

“While you’re doing that, I’ll be in the restroom,” Ana informed him.

_Lloyd, meet me down the hallway._

“I should probably go, too,” Lloyd blurted awkwardly. “You know, since the ride’s so long.”

Thankfully, Ninten didn’t seem at all fazed by Lloyd’s stumble. He just grinned at them both.

“It won’t be near as long to Halloween, but I won’t stop ya. Just don’t be gone too long! The next train’ll be by at… eleven, it says.”

Ninten bounced over to the line to buy their tickets, and Lloyd followed Ana down the hall leading to the restrooms.

“Ana--”

She pulled him around the corner and turned to face him.

“Lloyd, you know Ninten better than I do. How do I talk to him about how… _overwhelming_ he is?”

“Overwhelming?” Lloyd blinked in surprise. “Are you talking about the way he reacted to your PSI?”

“Well, that and everything else he does! You can’t tell me it isn’t obvious. He’s constantly shouting, and he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of self-control. Lloyd, he called me a _witch!_ Just because he felt like it!”

Lloyd shrugged. “I’m fairly sure he meant the good kind of witch, Ana. He wouldn’t insult you.”

“My point still stands! He acts like he eats a cupful of sugar every morning as soon as he gets out of bed. Isn’t there any way to get him to calm down?!”

Lloyd took a moment to try and understand where Ana was coming from. All right, so Ninten… was often louder than he needed to be, and he did get very excited about a lot of things. But Lloyd was sure he never meant any offense! No, Ninten wouldn’t ever hurt a friend on purpose--not without good reason, anyways. The argument they had justified a few nasty words, and they’d apologized for it… and even after that, when Lloyd hurt his feelings again, Ninten didn’t even get mad the second time around. He was just too _nice._

To be honest… Lloyd thought all of the things Ana complained about were the best parts about Ninten. Maybe Lloyd didn’t expect to enjoy the company of such an outspoken, energetic boy so much at the start, but he didn’t dare touch Ninten’s attitude. It was too perfect as things were. If Ninten could make a shy scientist… if Lloyd could enjoy spending time around someone like that, then there was definitely something special about the way Ninten worked in particular.

“There’s no way to calm him down--at least, not that I know of,” he finally said. “It’s never really bothered me. I enjoy spending time with him like this.”

“You can’t really mean that?!”

“I do, Ana. I like being Ninten’s friend, and I like him the way he is right now, and--well, yeah, you do have to get used to him, but maybe that’ll just take longer for you than it did for me.”

Ana scoffed. “Well, I’m sure he didn’t call you any names when the two of you met!”

“That’s actually not correct. We had a pretty big fight when he was teaching me, um… well, how to _fight._ We both called each other some pretty bad things, and we hurt each others’ feelings. But… that’s just how Ninten is, I think.”

Lloyd leaned against the wall and shoved his hands into the pockets of the coat he was wearing.

“Whatever’s happening in his head, it’s always at its maximum. Usually, that’s optimism. Sometimes, it’s something bad--like when we had that fight, I’m pretty sure it made him cry. But Ana, it’s really not a bad thing! I honestly believe that that kind of dedication to everything is what makes him so perfect for this adventure. If he hadn’t thrown everything he had into stopping all of these Weird-ified… whatevers, I don’t think he’d have even made it to Thanksgiving--let alone bought the train ticket to meet you. I know you have the same kind of powers he does, and because of that… I know you know he’s important. So, if him being this way is what got him this far, then I don’t see any reason why either of us should try to change him. Ninten is who he is, and I actually think trying to make him ‘calm down’ would hurt us in the long run. If that makes any sense.”

Ana rocked onto her toes and back a couple of times, evidently thinking over what Lloyd had just said.

“Perfect sense, actually… I guess you have known him longer than I have. If that’s really a good thing, then I suppose I’ll let it be.”

“All right.” Lloyd stood up straight and looked down the hall at the lobby of the station. “We should probably--”

“One more thing!” Ana interrupted frantically.

Lloyd looked back at her. Her cheeks had turned a darker pink.

“Yes?”

“Um… this may sound silly, but… do you know if Ninten thinks--um, if maybe he might… like me?”

An incredibly heavy rock dropped to the bottom of Lloyd’s stomach… so she liked him, too. Even though Lloyd knew he never had a chance, this still felt like getting hit by a truck.

No, he couldn’t think this way. Ninten deserved to be happy. Lloyd owed him that much, after all the trouble he’d been. He could bring Ninten and Ana together, and be a good friend to both of them by doing so.

“I don’t know for sure, but from what I’ve seen, I think there’s a really good chance he does like you,” Lloyd answered.

“Could you… talk to him about it?”

Lloyd nodded once, making himself smile as much as he could manage. “I’ll ask him the next time we’re alone, all right?”

“Good. Thank you so much!”

Ana hugged Lloyd, and as quickly as she’d offered the hug, she ran back to the lobby. Lloyd smoothed out his coat, adjusted his glasses, and looked up at the clock. 10:55… just in time for Ninten to wonder what had happened.

“There you are! Ya seen Lloyd?”

Ninten’s voice was loud enough to echo down the hall… this time, Lloyd let himself smile at the little flutter it brought to his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Sorry this update took so long to reach you guys. Quarantine's been wild, and procedures at work have changed just about every 5 seconds. (Yes, I still physically go to work! I know, it's crazy.)  
> Don't worry, the poll results still stand--but I won't delete that work until I've started publishing both routes, so that everyone knows what's going on.  
> Comments and criticism always welcome!


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